Silent Voice
by Larien Surion
Summary: I wrote this after playing one of the songs on Project DIVA f 2nd, Soundless Voice. Len and Rin alternate telling the story of how they lived in a cottage out in the woods. WARNING! Character death.


**Silent Voice**  
This is a Vocaloid story. I don't own Vocaloids, except the two Project Diva games for the PS3.  
This story involves character death, which is why I've rated it M. It's also written in first-person, alternating between two characters. I'll write the name in _italics_ when I change who is telling the story.

_Len Kagamine_  
It all started when mother died, I guess. Rin and I were little, only five when it happened. We moved away from the city, out into the woods. Specifically to the cottage where we used to go in the summer. Father would drive us out to school using the sled in the winter, and the wagon when there wasn't snow.  
Rin was the weaker one of us. She got cold easier, got sick easier. Father said she was just like mother.  
It didn't take long for Rin and I to have a few friends. There were Miku and Luka, who were a grade ahead of us. Then there was Kaito, who was another year ahead of them. They were good friends, and we were happy.  
We learned to cook at a young age, I guess, but it didn't matter. Rin and I were happy, living in the cottage with our Father. I played the violin, Rin painted. When I was eight, I learned how to chop wood and drive the horses. We were happy, and that was what mattered.

_Rin Kagamine_  
I was the weaker sibling, so I stayed inside a lot. I loved to look out the window. There was a huge tree out there, and I would try to paint it, each season, so I would be able to remember what it looked like. My voice wasn't very good, I was always whispering, because to speak louder would make me cough. Len would build snowmen for me to draw in the winter, and take me out to enjoy the air in the summer.  
I got good at cooking. I could make the best hot chocolate, Father said. I always thought I should add more sugar.  
Then, one day when we were ten, Father and Len didn't come home for supper. It got late, and I put towels over the food to keep it from getting dry. The sun went down, and the moon came up. I waited as long as I could before falling asleep in the bed.  
The jingle of the horses' bells woke me, around midnight. They seemed panicked, and I lit the lamp to look outside. There was no one in the wagon.

_Len Kagamine_  
It was cold. I didn't know what to do. We were out chopping wood, and suddenly Father had told me to run. I didn't know what to do but obey, so I ran. There were sounds behind me, but I didn't dare look. I had to get back to the cottage. I could hear the horses panic, and then the wagon tore past, hitting me as the frightened animals made a quick turn. I was flung, and hit a tree, knocking the wind, and consciousness, from me.  
It was dark when I woke, half frozen. Fresh snow was falling. I struggled to get up. My back hurt. My lungs hurt. I knew I had to get moving, or risk freezing to death.  
I began trudging along the now shallow grooves where the wagon had gone, hoping the horses had returned to the cottage. I spotted a light off to my left, and began to trudge towards it.  
The snow piled thickly against my legs. I couldn't lift my feet hight enough to get them over the snow. White powder fell into my boots, freezing my feet. It lumped high enough to get up under my coat, freezing my body.  
The light was getting closer, and I fumbled with numb fingers at the familiar knob of the cottage. Rin opened the door, and I trudged in, bringing more snow with me.  
She hurried to the stove, putting another log on the fire to try and warm the place. I fumbled and managed to get my coat off and left my boots in a heap by the door before just collapsing.  
I faded in and out of consciousness. I knew Rin had gotten me to stand and had seated me by the stove. The next time I opened my eyes, there was a warm blanket around me, and Rin was boiling some water on the stove. I drifted off again, but woke when she prodded me, and I was able to wrap my thawing fingers around a mug of her hot chocolate.  
She looked at me, worried. "Where's Father?" she asked.  
I had no answer, but I told her what I knew. Rin only nodded, and the cold truth settled in on us.  
We were alone.

_Rin Kagamine_  
After we lost our father, Len picked up the slack. He did the heavy chores, chopped the wood, tilled the garden, got the ice in the ice-house for us. In turn, I did my best with the light chores, like cleaning the house. We still tried to attend school, but we were there far less than we should have been.  
The old player piano that Father used to play was really the only thing we had left from him. I started to use it, learning to play the songs by memorizing where and when the keys dipped down. Len tried, too, but I was better at it.  
Four more years passed, with Len and I living alone at the cottage. One of the horses died, so Len sold the double wagon and harness, buying a smaller single wagon and harness set so we could still get to town.  
It was a cold winter. Len was forced to board up most of the windows in order to try and keep the cold winds out. The water and sawdust mixture Father had taught him to make was the only thing that kept my favorite window from also being boarded up, since there were leaks around the frame.  
Then, it happened. I was cleaning the house when I fell into a coughing fit. As I pulled my hand back, I saw blood. I washed my hands before Len came inside. I couldn't let him know I was getting sick. He was busy enough. I was a grade ahead of him, because he'd had to quit to keep the cottage. He worked the soil, cut the trees, repaired the house.  
But I couldn't hide it forever. It happened again, one night. There was only one bed, and Len slept in Father's old rocker. I must have woken him up as I coughed, because he was there beside me when the blood started dripping through my fingers.

_Len Kagamine_  
Rin was sick. How could I have let her get so sick? I held a handkerchief for her to cough into, scared when it turned red before she stopped. Just how long had this gone on?  
Day by day, my sister got worse. I had to help her walk anywhere in the house. The snow kept falling, and I hated it. Every time I left Rin alone inside, I was scared that I'd come back in and find her dead.  
But the wood needed to be chopped, and so I bundled myself up and headed out with the axe. I worked quickly, bringing a large bundle back with me to keep the stove going overnight.  
I found Rin lying on the floor. Dropping the wood, I kicked off my boots and hurried over. She was breathing. I picked her up and put her to bed, wrapped her in a blanket that had been warming by the fire.  
I hardly left her side, hoping my sister wake up. The stove was kept hot, food was still made, but I worried about Rin. It was an hour's drive to town, and another half just to get to the doctor. We had no phone, like the people in the town, or in the city.  
Then, one day as I was putting wood in the stove, I heard a whisper. Turning, I saw Rin was awake, pale as a ghost. I rushed back to her side, took her hand in mine.  
She could see I'd been worried. She smiled for me, told me to take care of myself. Then, she closed her eyes. Her hand got heavy, and I cried.  
It was a while before I stopped. Taking the warm blanket she'd been sleeping under, I wrapped her up and carried her outside, into the wagon. I stepped inside again and collected our few things, but abandoned the old player piano.  
Hitching up the horse, I looked back at the cottage one last time before driving towards town.  
Miku and Luka seemed shocked to see me as I drove the wagon into town. After all, I was alone. I never came alone. They tried to stop me, but I kept driving, right to the Undertakers.  
They stopped as I climbed into the back of the wagon and carefully picked up the blanket-wrapped body. Her hand slipped out as I got out of the wagon, and the two girls started crying.  
Kaito was the Undertaker's son, but even he was shocked when I walked in carrying Rin's small body. I felt so numb, and collapsed myself after I had handed my beloved sister over to Kaito's father.  
When I woke, I was in a strange room. I panicked, sitting up. Kaito was there. He told me I'd collapsed, that the doctor said it was shock. I didn't know what to say at first, but finally I asked about Rin.  
Kaito seemed to understand that I needed this closure. He told me that his father and the doctor had examined her body and found that she died from pneumonia and a weak body. The other also said that his father wasn't going to charge me for the care of the body to prepare Rin for burial. All I was going to have to pay for was the coffin and the marker.  
The day was cold when Rin was buried. Cold and unfeeling, like the day that had taken her away from me. On the wind, I thought I heard her whisper, but I couldn't be sure. At her grave I left a wooden cross and a small sapling from her favorite tree.

_Afterward_ \- Len Kagamine went on to finish the schooling he'd abandoned for the sake of his sister, and became a doctor in order to try and help others who had weak bodies like his beloved Rin. He eventually married and fathered three children of his own. On cold nights, when his children would ask for a story, Len would tell them of a gentle angel that used to live with him, but left when she had done enough to finally earn her wings.  
He would tell them about Rin.


End file.
